The amount of data transferred between electronic devices has grown tremendously the last several years. Large amounts of audio, streaming video, text, and other types of data content are now regularly transferred among desktop and portable computers, media devices, handheld media devices, displays, storage devices, and other types of electronic devices. Power may be transferred with this data, or power may be transferred separately.
Power and data may be conveyed over cables that may include wire conductors, fiber optic cables, or some combination of these or other conductors. Cable assemblies may include a connector insert at each end of a cable, though other cable assemblies may be connected or tethered to an electronic device in a dedicated manner. The connector inserts may be inserted into receptacles in the communicating electronic devices to form pathways for power and data.
These receptacles may include a tongue supporting a number of contacts. The contacts may be electrically connected to traces on the tongue. The traces on the tongue may electrically connect to traces on a printed circuit board or other substrate in the electronic device. Often this may be accomplished by mounting the connector receptacle on the printed circuit board.
But in some devices it may be desirable to locate a receptacle such that its tongue is located at a different height or Z position from the printed circuit board in the electronic device. For example, it may be desirable to position a receptacle at a mid-height level of an electronic device while it may be desirable to locate a board at a lower-height level of the electronic device. It may also be desirable to be able to rotate a position of a connector receptacle relative to a printed circuit board in the electronic device.
Thus, what is needed are interposers and other connecting structures for electrically connecting contacts on a connector receptacle tongue to traces on a printed circuit board.